Enterprise Financial Services - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• EFSC delivered solid Q1 with diluted EPS of $1.31, up QoQ and YoY; EPS beat S&P Global consensus by ~12% (vs $1.172*), while reported “revenue” (S&P definition) of $158.2M missed consensus ($162.8M*) due to mix and S&P methodology; NIM expanded 2 bps to 4.15% as deposit costs fell 17 bps to 1.83%. Values with * retrieved from S&P Global.
• Asset quality headline: NPAs rose to 0.72% (from 0.30%) tied to Southern California CRE relationships in bankruptcy; management expects full repayment, no specific reserves recorded on these loans.
• Strategic catalyst: announced acquisition of 12 branches (AZ/KC) with ~$740M deposits and ~$200M loans; targeted close by early Q4’25 and mid-to-high single digit EPS accretion in FY26; dividend raised to $0.30 for Q2’25 and continued buybacks signal capital deployment.
• Outlook: management sees a ~5 bps NIM step-down in Q2’25 (sub debt effect) then “stable” margin even with 75 bps of cuts modeled; net interest income set to grow through 2025 aided by day count and pricing discipline.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Margin and NII resilience: NIM 4.15% (+2 bps QoQ) and NII $147.5M (+$1.1M QoQ) as deposit costs fell and pricing discipline held; CEO: “proactive management of the balance sheet and cost of deposits has led to expansion in both net interest income and NIM.”.
  • Capital deployment and shareholder returns: dividend increased to $0.30 for Q2’25; $10.6M buybacks in Q1 and strong ROATCE of 14.02% support continued capital returns.
  • Strategic expansion: announced purchase of 10 AZ and 2 KS branches (low-cost, commercially oriented deposits); CEO: “highly strategic fit… immediately leverages excess capital… attractive EPS accretion in 2026 and beyond.”.

• What Went Wrong

  • Headline uptick in NPAs: NPAs/Assets rose to 0.72% driven by seven CRE/residential loans to two SoCal relationships in bankruptcy; management expects full collection (LTVs 39–79%) but optics weigh on credit narrative near-term.
  • Seasonal/FX of noninterest income: noninterest income down $2.1M QoQ to $18.5M on lower seasonal tax credit income (typical Q4 peak); offset by SBA gain on sale.
  • Slight efficiency drift: core efficiency ratio worsened to 58.8% (from 57.1%) on seasonal comp resets, partially offset by lower core conversion costs.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jim Lally, President and CEO. You may begin.

James Lally (CEO)

Thank you, Pam, and good morning, everybody. Thank you all very much for joining us this morning, and welcome to our 2025 First Quarter Earnings Call. Joining me this morning is Keene Turner, EFSC's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer; Scott Goodman, President of Enterprise Bank & Trust; and Doug Bauche, Chief Credit Officer of Enterprise Bank & Trust. Before we begin, I would like to remind everybody on the call that a copy of the release and accompanying presentation can be found on our website. The presentation and earnings release were furnished on SEC Form 8K yesterday, in addition to two other press releases that we'll be referencing in our remarks this morning. Please refer to Slide 2 of the presentation titled "Forward-Looking Statements" and our most recent 10K and 10Q for reasons why actual results may vary from any forward-looking statements that we make this morning.

Our financial scorecard begins on Slide 3. 2025 is off to an exciting start for our company. In addition to strong financial results for the first quarter, yesterday we announced the acquisition of 12 branches from First Interstate Bank, 10 of which are in our Arizona market, complementing very well the focused commercial bank we have built over the last 15 years. The strong financial performance that we have generated for the past several years continued into the first quarter of 2025.

For the quarter, we earned $1.31 per diluted share, which compares favorably to the seasonally strong $1.28 that we earned in the linked quarter and the $1.05 that we earned in the first quarter of 2024. This level of performance produced an adjusted return on assets of 1.29% and a pre-provision ROAA of 1.71%. I would characterize our performance in the quarter as strong and consistent.

Net interest income and net interest margin both saw expansion in the quarter. NII came in at $1.1 million better than the previous quarter, despite two fewer days in the quarter, and represented the fourth consecutive quarter where we saw NII expansion. This reflects both better seasonal performance in our deposit balances and net interest margin expansion resulting from our relationship-oriented deposit base and our team's ability to provide value-added service to our customers that is well worth the extra few basis points when it comes to loan and deposit pricing.

Loan growth in the quarter was 3%, or $78 million, with active production across all of our markets and businesses. However, net growth was somewhat muted by two factors.

The first was the sale of $30 million of SBA loans, and the second was the seasonal decline due to sales in loans in our tax credit business that totaled approximately $75 million. Our diversified deposit base remains a differentiator for us. Typically, in the first quarter, we showed significant outflows due to the heavy concentration of commercial-oriented accounts.

This year, absent a municipal relationship that we knew was exiting, our deposit flows were stable overall. We've worked extremely hard to blunt this trend through growth of our national deposit verticals, as well as through market and business diversification within both the commercial bank and our more granular business banking and consumer relationships. The composition of deposits [inaudible]

Scott R. Goodman (President)

Our western market of Southern California also had a strong quarter with $60 million, or 13% annualized loan growth.

New business included loans to refinance fully occupied medical and mixed-use properties in San Diego, as well as a new relationship with a specialty finance company. Moving on to deposits on Slides 8 and 9, changes in the quarter within the core geographic portfolio reflect the typical seasonal decline in client balances of $303 million, mainly associated with distributions, bonuses, and tax payments.

The material portion of this reduction was offset by continued growth within the national deposit verticals, which grew $134 million, or roughly 16% annualized in Q1. On a year-over-year basis, total client deposits, excluding brokerage funds, are up 7.7%. In general, the larger C&I portfolios within the Midwest and western markets are most heavily impacted by the seasonal reductions, which typically then rebuild throughout the remainder of the year.

We continue to perform well relative to retention of existing clients, as well as adding new C&I relationships, even as we proactively focus on gaining incremental margin in the pricing of loans and deposits. Our commercial teams are well versed in reinforcing our key value drivers, particularly as we assist clients with strategic capital needs or target disrupted competitors. The national deposit verticals, profiled on Slide 10, continue to provide differentiated low-cost funding, while also diversifying our overall deposit base and somewhat softening the seasonality of our other channels.

HOA had a particularly strong growth quarter associated with onboarding a significant number of new account relationships. Lastly, Slide 11 profiles the mix of our core deposit base, which continues to be well diversified and highly relationship-oriented, with roughly one-third of these accounts being non-interest-bearing and 90% of them using some form of treasury management or online banking.

They provide strong continuity and a solid base from which to expand other fee-generating revenue streams. Now, I would like to hand the call over to Keene Turner for his comments. Keene?

Keene S. Turner (Senior EVP & CFO)

Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone. Turning to Slide 12, we reported earnings per share of $1.31 in the first quarter on net income of $50 million. That's a 3% increase over the linked quarter, for which earnings per share was $1.28. On an adjusted basis, earnings per share was relatively stable at $1.31 in the current quarter. Adjusted EPS excludes the impact of core conversion-related expenses and gains and losses on the sale of OREO and securities. One of the highlights of the quarter was the increase in net interest income. Our disciplined pricing of loans and deposits benefited net interest income, along with growth in average loans and securities.

These actions more than offset the impact of fewer days in the quarter and the repricing of variable-rate loans. Non-interest income was also strong to start the year, although it did decline from the fourth quarter, which is typically the highest quarter of the year. The provision for credit losses decreased from the linked quarter due to lower growth and a net recovery on loans.

As Jim noted, while non-performing loans have increased due to the relationships in bankruptcy, we did not reserve for those loans as we fully expect to collect related balances. Non-interest expense was slightly higher in the quarter, as a seasonal increase in compensation and benefits was mostly offset with a decrease in conversion costs related to the core system migration in the fourth quarter.

Turning to Slide 13, with more details to follow on 14, to me, the highlight of the first quarter is how well we were able to manage net interest income. First and foremost, we were able to mitigate two fewer days in the quarter.

There isn't one single factor that led to this performance; however, we were able to largely replace seasonal deposit outflows to maintain the size of the balance sheet. For the last several quarters, the investment rate for securities has been favorable, and we have been adding to those balances in order to strengthen our earnings profile. Also, from a business perspective, we have had success in repricing loans better than we had anticipated, while also improving the pricing on our deposit balances.

The origination rate for new loans was 7.12% in the quarter, and we were able to drive deposit rates down another 10 basis points to 1.82% at the end of the first quarter. The combination of those factors has led to better-than-planned net interest margin in this first quarter.

Starting off the year with a 4.15% net interest margin has set the stage for slightly stronger net interest income performance for 2025. With that said, we do expect to see modest erosion of margin during this year. With recent variability in interest rates in recent weeks, it's difficult to assume that we would face the same strength in reinvestment rates throughout 2025. However, we will continue our efforts to mitigate expected pressure on net interest margin, with continued discipline on pricing performance on both sides of the balance sheet.

As for net interest income dollars, day count is now in our favor for the remainder of 2025. Slide 15 reflects our credit trends. We had a net recovery of $1.1 million compared to net charge-offs of $7.1 million in the link quarter. The provision for credit losses declined to $5.2 million in the period, compared to $6.8 million in the link quarter due to changes in loan growth and the net recovery. Non-performing assets were 72 basis points of total assets, compared to 30 basis points at the end of the year.

The temporary increase in the non-performing asset ratio was primarily related to two relationships with common general partners that went into bankruptcy due to a business dispute.

We are well secured with collateral and individual guarantees and fully expect to collect each of the underlying loans, and we expect NPAs to return to normalized level in the next couple of quarters. Slide 16 presents the allowance for credit losses.

The allowance for credit losses represents 1.27% of total loans, or 1.38% when adjusting for government guarantee loans. Of note, we moved allowance to total loan coverage up slightly to further reflect potential for erosion of economic conditions. On Slide 17, first quarter non-interest income of $18 million included a $1.9 million gain on the sale of SBA loans. This helped partially offset the decrease in tax credit income from a seasonally high fourth quarter. Depending on levels of planned growth and activity in the SBA space, we may take the opportunity to sell more SBA loans as the year progresses.

Turning to Slide 18, non-interest expense of $99.8 million increased less than $1 million from the fourth quarter. The increase was primarily in compensation and benefits due to seasonal payroll tax impacts and merit increases that went into effect March 1st. These increases were offset by the $1.9 million in core conversion costs in the fourth quarter that did not reoccur.

Deposit costs were relatively stable as well, reflecting the strength of the average balances, offsetting improvement in the earnings credit rate. Core efficiency improved to 58.8% compared to 57.1% for the link quarter. Sorry, efficiency increased, not improved. Our capital metrics are shown on Slide 19. We are executing our disciplined capital allocation strategy, evaluating various opportunities, including share repurchases and M&A, with focus on creating shareholder value. We repurchased 192,000 shares at an average price of $55.28 for approximately $11 million of capital return.

We have approximately 1.2 million shares remaining outstanding under our current repurchase plan. Our tangible common equity ratio was 9.3%, up from 9.1% in the link quarter. On a per-share basis, tangible book value was up by 14% on an annualized basis to $38.54. We also increased our quarterly dividend by 1 cent to $0.30 per share for the second quarter of 2025. I'll echo Jim's comments. We started the year with a lot of momentum. Our earnings profile is strong, the balance sheet is strong, and we're adding further to our earnings and growth profile with the strategic branch acquisition that Jim outlined. We believe that combined with our differentiated commercial relationship model, we will continue to deliver top-tier financial performance for the foreseeable future. I appreciate your attention today, and I'll turn it back to Jim before we open the line for Q&A.

James Lally (CEO)

Thank you, Keene. In addition to the announcement regarding our Arizona and Kansas City expansion, yesterday we also announced that Scott Goodman has decided to transition to a part-time non-managerial role as part of our orderly succession planning process, and thus will step down from his position as President of Enterprise Bank & Trust later this year. Thankfully, Scott has decided to stay with the company as a strategic advisor to me, while also working with our teams and our most important clients. Subsequently, Doug Bauche will be promoted to the newly created role of Chief Banking Officer, where he will lead all of our commercial, specialty, and business banking businesses. Kevin Hanley, a 30-year industry veteran, the last seven with Enterprise, will succeed Doug as our company's Chief Credit Officer.

These moves will all be effective later this year, and we are well positioned with our succession planning preparation to ensure a smooth transition. I would like to publicly acknowledge and thank Scott for his tremendous contributions that he's made to our company over the last 23 years, the last 12 as President of Enterprise Bank & Trust. We would not be the successful organization that we are without his great leadership and strategic guidance. I also would like to congratulate Doug and Kevin on their promotions and look forward to working closely with them in their new roles. Lastly, I would like to thank all of our Enterprise associates for their hard work and dedication to serving our clients every day. With that, I would now like to open the line for questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session.

If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your cell phone keypad. To raise your hand and join the queue, if you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via loudspeaker on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Your first question comes from the line of Jeff Rulis with DA Davidson. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Thanks. Good morning. Good morning, Jeff. Any of the terms of the branch deal that you're willing to disclose? Was this cash? Just trying to get a sense for the purchase price.

Keene S. Turner (Senior EVP & CFO)

Yeah, Jeff, it's an assumption, right?

We're bringing on roughly net $450 million of cash that largely, after the loans, we'll invest in securities at, call it, a 5% rate. All in all, I think we expect the deal pro forma comes on at a similar to slightly improved margin. It'll further the balance sheet at this point is pretty neutral when you factor in ECR and tax credit. It'll have a chance, if we would like to, making net interest income more neutral or the balance sheet slightly liability-sensitive overall. Expenses kind of come in from a run rate perspective in the low 50%. Call that 52-54%. Modeled pretty conservatively in terms of what we announced for the accretion. You sort of start with mid-single-digit EPS accretion, and that improves as you assume you lend out some of the securities over time.

Maybe just to follow on, the expectation for pro forma capital levels post-close, and then would that alter, I guess, in the interim or even after kind of the buyback or other M&A appetite, just more on the capital side?

Yeah, I would say, Jeff, pro forma capital is right at our targets, which is good. Of note, we did not execute the call on our sub debt given equity market valuations. We've got a senior piece lined up if we want to replace that. I think we can continue to be modestly offensive with share repurchases in these next couple of quarters here in addition to the transaction. Given the risk-weighted asset profile, low risk-weighted assets, we've got a lot of leverage ratio to give, and it doesn't materially impact total capital ratios or risk-based ratios.

I feel like there's an opportunity to continue to do a little bit of all of the above.

Got it. And one final one, if I could. I believe the Arizona piece of that, what was the old Great Western, had some dairy exposure. Any comments on the—and maybe that's run off, and it's a pretty diminished amount on a relative sense, but just sector-wise, was there any industry exposures from the loans brought over? Again, just $200 million.

James Lally (CEO)

Yeah. Jeff, this is Jim. We had the opportunity to really look at what's attractive to us, and so we're not picking up any dairy exposure in this transaction.

Okay. Great. Thank you. I'll step back.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Liesch with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Morning, guys. Just kind of sticking with the theme of the deal here, just curious if you kind of model out some of the book value, dilution that's going to come how quickly you can earn that back.

Keene S. Turner (Senior EVP & CFO)

Yeah, Andrew, relative risk-reward, some of it depends on how quickly we lend it out. I think, as I noted, our assumptions are fairly conservative, both in the amount of employees that will stay on and will grow with us. And then we have also planned some additions to the market in the run rate there. Let's just say that if share repurchases are a five-year earned back and the full bank M&A is three, it's way closer to the three than the five.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. Just on organic loan growth, obviously some portfolio is a little bit stronger here in the first quarter and some optimism for certain types as we move on through the year. I mean, how are you looking at loan growth for 2025, given that this rate was not all that strong in the first quarter overall?

James Lally (CEO)

Yeah, Andrew, I'll look at it this way. We really focus on balance sheet growth first and foremost. I'm not going to shy away from that mid-single-digit growth for that. Given some of the uncertainty in the economy and what have you, we certainly have been out talking to our clients, and they're not quite sitting in their hands, but they are waiting and seeing what's going on out there.

We had thought maybe we'd see the lift in the second half of the year, and that may bleed into 2026, but nonetheless, we're out attracting new relationships, growing the balance sheet, doing it the right way. To the extent that something breaks free relative to the U.S. trade partners that then avails us to the appropriate loan growth, we'll seize it.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. I appreciate the commentary. I'll step back.

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Damon DelMonte with KBW. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys. Hope everybody's doing well today. Just a question on the margin and the outlook.

Keene, I think you noted that the margin's likely to trend lower here in the coming quarters, but can you kind of help us think about NII and the outlook there and your ability to kind of defend current levels even though the margin will be coming down?

Keene S. Turner (Senior EVP & CFO)

Yeah. Damon, I would say the only thing that really changed with margin is my comments around the sub debt that flips to variable rate here in the quarter and has a pretty double-digit or near double-digit rate versus we were planning on replacing that with senior. I think it's a short-term trade for long-term capital management opportunity that exists.

I would say that we expect margin to potentially step down maybe five basis points sequentially in the quarter, but all of my margin from here on out in a five-quarter look is stable, and that has 75 basis points of Fed funds cuts in it. Absent the transition from 4Q to 1Q 2026 on day count, net interest income dollars grows quarterly, whether we grow the balance sheet a whole lot or not. I think we feel pretty good about that. Just worth pointing out, when we look at it inclusive of non-interest expense, we are pretty neutral to slightly positive. It depends on how some of those balances and complexions move, what part of the curve is moving, but I think we have done a pretty good job of neutralizing out the curve.

I think when you look back, 1Q24 versus current quarter, pre-tax, pre-provision revenue contribution is fairly stable when you neutralize tax credits. I think we feel pretty good about that. Obviously, the branch transaction, as we noted, gives us a chance to further improve the balance sheet flexibility and net neutrality of it as we move forward.

Got it. That's helpful. Thank you. Could you just kind of help us think about the quarterly cadence for expenses? I know obviously the branch transaction comes out in the fourth quarter, but if you look at the level of the first quarter, kind of deposit costs were a little bit higher and comp and benefits were higher for the start of the year. How do we kind of think about that quarterly cadence?

I think we did not have any rate moves here in the quarter.

The earnings credit rate improved, but we continue to have good success in that business. The deposit costs will probably grow in line there. I expect we typically trade merit for seasonal payroll, first quarter to second quarter, maybe inclusive of some working day stuff. I do not think I have a really assertive improvement in run rate, but to the extent that we continue to grow the balances in the deposit verticals, that will grow net interest income dollars and will largely offset or slightly improve profitability. There is really no big move coming. We will have what I will say is fairly immaterial transaction-related expense on legal and those types of things in the coming quarters, but we will point those out. Those are not a huge item here with the type of the transaction. Okay.

Did you say that the kind of efficiency ratio of the branch operations that you're taking on are in the 52-54% range? If that, we can kind of back into what the expense impact is.

That's correct. There's a minimal amount of fees that we expect to recur with the branches. It's largely margin and expenses. More in line with our traditional branch-only core banking efficiency ratio, and obviously the deposit verticals add to that a little bit. Yes, that's 52-54% depending on how everything settles out.

Got it. Okay. That's all that I had. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Damon.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from David Long with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone.

Keene S. Turner (Senior EVP & CFO)

Good morning, David.

Keene, you mentioned that a little bit of pressure on the NIM here in the second quarter, but then thereafter, even with 75 basis points of rate cuts, did you say NIM still stable in that environment?

Yeah, I would say generally. We've had good success in repricing deposits here. The early data is fairly in line with what the results were and slightly better than we had modeled. As the time passes, David, when we get repricing of CDs and things like that, we expect that that'll improve to sort of the maximum data that we had when rates were rising. Those things help to stabilize margin, as do the proactive steps we took on boosting the size of the investment portfolio and getting some durable earnings there. We feel pretty good about stable margin.

I would say the margin declination that I referred to is self-inflicted, but an opportunity to manage the share count and equity part of the capital stack here in the coming couple of quarters.

Got it. Great. No, I appreciate that color. Thank you. On the credit side of things, Keene, I think you called these new non-performing loans temporary. What is the timing of the process to exit these credits, or what's your best guess on how that plays out to exit those without any losses?

Douglas N. Bauche (Senior EVP and Chief Credit Officer)

Yeah. Hey, David, it's Doug Bauche. Yeah, I'll comment on that. Listen, due to the bankruptcy, I think it's difficult for us to predict the specific timing of the resolution of these particular loans.

I think what we can just do is kind of reiterate, right, our position that we're in today relative to loan to values and recourse to these sponsors and our confidence to be able to collect. I can tell you, David, I went out, personally visited each and every one of these properties, and then we've, of course, engaged independent third-party appraisals that we just got here in March. Listen, absent a dispute, these properties, these loans would be well-performing. They're occupied, they're well-positioned, they're in a very attractive Laguna Beach market. This dispute was unforeseen. It's unfortunate, but we'll have to let things play out here in the bankruptcy proceedings. In due process, due time, I think we're going to have a very favorable outcome.

Great. Thanks for taking my questions, guys.

Operator (participant)

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Brian Martin with Janney. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys.

Keene S. Turner (Senior EVP & CFO)

Good morning, Brian.

Keene, it sounds like just fair to say, given the outlook on margin, just even into next year, if we're kind of thinking about things, where rates are and maybe a couple of cuts here, and the margin's still well above four in terms of even longer term than kind of the near-term comments you've made. Does that seem fair based on kind of the positioning of the balance sheet and kind of your rate outlook today?

That is accurate.

Gotcha. Okay. Perfect.Just in terms of the pro forma capital, I think you said with the transaction, where's your expectation in terms of where the TCE lands in the fourth quarter? I do not remember if you said what that was.

Yeah. Brian, it is going to be dependent on how much we are after the common stock, but sort of 8.5% is where we think it is. It leverages TCE roughly 100 basis points, and the other capital ratios are around the same amount, just slightly under. We think it is a really nice way to right-size capital and also strategically expand the business and add to EPS, all that stuff. That is, in my opinion, with where we are seeing pricing and opportunities, gives us a chance to still manage some share count.

Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. I think you said you also sold some tax credit loans in the quarter. Was that?

James Lally (CEO)

No. Let me explain this to you. In the normal course of business, what happens is significant sales of the credits in the fourth quarter, which then comes in, the cash comes to pay down the loans. That is just part of the seasonal flow of the business.

Okay. I guess, okay. That is just the normal course of business, the timing was.

Given the size of the portfolio and where many of these projects are in process, that will rebuild over the rest of this year. This is a seasonal decline. It will rebuild, and as Scott mentioned in his comments, we will see growth in that business throughout 2025.

Gotcha. We see a similar pattern next year, maybe when you execute in the fourth quarter, we'll see a follow-through in the first quarter with maybe a little bit of a drift down like we did this quarter.

That is exactly right.

Gotcha. Okay. I think, Keene, I'm not sure who said it, but as far as building the reserve this quarter, that's just uncertainty with regard to the tariffs. I mean, it certainly wasn't the credits you talked about this quarter, but just trying to understand what was driving the reserve build this quarter and thinking about that.

Keene S. Turner (Senior EVP & CFO)

Yeah. Tariffs very clearly happened in the second quarter. I think there just started to be a lot of turbulence as we looked at the forecasts, and we're always more weighted toward the downside in our qualitative reserves.

It just felt like overall, from a trend perspective, that we did not want to miss an opportunity here with a strong earnings quarter to be a little bit more conservative in the overall reserve level. We think that is the right position to be in here, and we will continue to evaluate it at the end of the second quarter, end of the third quarter, and just make sure that with the balance sheet and the earnings profile, we also are putting things away for reserves if the economy looks like it is starting to cloud up a little bit.

Yeah. Okay. Did you give with the Keene the expense add from the branch deal, or do you have a ballpark of what that is? If not, I will take a look at what your comments were earlier.

I did not. I gave an efficiency ratio.

I said it was like 52-54% marginal efficiency on the modeled net interest income, and the margin on the assets coming over was roughly in line with expected margin at closing. As we get closer here, I'll give you sort of line item details, but for right now, I think that should get you pretty close to the mid-single-digit 2026 accretion. For the year, you'll have a little bit of earnings in the fourth quarter from the opportunity, and it probably out-earns the one-time cost modestly in 2025.

Gotcha. Okay. That's helpful. Thanks for taking the questions.

Thanks, Brian.

Operator (participant)

There are no more questions. I will now turn the conference back over to Jim for closing remarks.

James Lally (CEO)

Thank you, Pam. Again, thank you for all of you joining the call this morning.

Appreciate your interest in our company, and we'll talk with you at the end of the next quarter. Have a great day.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.